On This Day (May 2)

[MSFixR]

• 1519 - Leonardo da Vinci, Italian inventor and painter died. (b. 1452)
• 1670 – A Royal Charter granted the Hudson's Bay Company a monopoly in the fur trade in Rupert's Land.
• 1729 - Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia born. (d.1796) (Catherine II reigned as Empress of Russia for 34 years, from 9 July [O.S. 28 June] 1762 until her death. She exemplifies the enlightened despot of her era.)
  
  
  Catherine the Great of Russia
  
  
• 1808 – Beginning of the Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rebelled against French occupation of the city.
• 1829 – Captain Charles Fremantle of the Royal Navy established the Swan River Colony, the first British settlement on the west coast of Australia.
• 1892 - Manfred von Richthofen, German World War I pilot - the Red Baron born. (d. 1918)
• 1903 - Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician and author born. (d. 1998) (Spock was an American pediatrician whose book Baby and Child Care, published in 1946, is one of the biggest best-sellers of all time. Its revolutionary message to mothers was that "you know more than you think you do." Spock was the first pediatrician to study psychoanalysis to try to understand children's needs and family dynamics. His ideas about childcare influenced several generations of parents to be more flexible and affectionate with their children, and to treat them as individuals, whereas the previous conventional wisdom had been that child rearing should focus on building discipline, and that, e.g., babies should not be "spoiled" by picking them up when they cried. Dr. Spock is known to have said "Live long and prosper.")
• 1907 - Pinky Lee, American vaudeville performer born. (d. 1993) (Lee born Pincus Leff, was a male burlesque comic and host of the children's television program, The Pinky Lee Show in the early 1950s.)
• 1932 - Comedian Jack Benny's radio show airs for the first time.
• 1945 – World War II: General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the German troops in Berlin, surrendered the city to Soviet forces led by General Georgy Zhukov, ending the Battle of Berlin.
• 1952 - The world's first ever jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1 makes its maiden voyage, flying from London to Johannesburg.
• 1955 - Tennessee Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
• 1982 – HMS Conqueror launched three torpedoes and sank ARA General Belgrano during the Falklands War.
• 1986 – Henri Toivonen died while leading the Tour de Corse rally, resulting in FISA, the sport governing body for motor racing events, banning the powerful and popular Group B rally cars for the following season.